SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Former SH5 Producer Alexandru Gris talks about Software-Quality

janh · 08-28-10, 04:10 AM

Well said Elanaiba. Probably splitting off as a separate company holds great rewards, but also great risks. Under cover of Ubisoft, you can still get through with a bad seller or two, but on your own, any risks become "much riskier".

Hmmh, I think after SHIII and SHIV, the Silent Hunter Series was at a turning point. And the general decision, whoever made it, to go for mass market and casual gamer audience just appears not to work with this type of game. It may never have been the hard-core "game" (simulation, whatever) like Falcon 4, Jane's Longbow or so, but I don't think that any of those games feature topics that are enticing to a general audience. My impression is that kiddies just go for quick fun action with shallow learning curves these days, and are scared off by something that might relate to closely to reality, and where you could even learn something.

Have you ever considered doing the exact opposite, and focus on the actually "tiny" customer ship of this genre by going into the premium market? Say SH(x) would cost a good $80 from now on, and that would allow you to spent 4-5 years working on any sequel so it really comes out polished, bug-free and with really new content -- that content and those improvements, that your customer ship was really asking for. This will not get you any casual gamer that just looks for a quick game on a Saturday afternoon, but I am quite confident it would have worked with the people in this community. Maybe that is something to think about?

08-28-10, 04:10 AM	#41
janh Stinking drunk in Trinidad Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 349 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	. Well said Elanaiba. Probably splitting off as a separate company holds great rewards, but also great risks. Under cover of Ubisoft, you can still get through with a bad seller or two, but on your own, any risks become "much riskier". Hmmh, I think after SHIII and SHIV, the Silent Hunter Series was at a turning point. And the general decision, whoever made it, to go for mass market and casual gamer audience just appears not to work with this type of game. It may never have been the hard-core "game" (simulation, whatever) like Falcon 4, Jane's Longbow or so, but I don't think that any of those games feature topics that are enticing to a general audience. My impression is that kiddies just go for quick fun action with shallow learning curves these days, and are scared off by something that might relate to closely to reality, and where you could even learn something. Have you ever considered doing the exact opposite, and focus on the actually "tiny" customer ship of this genre by going into the premium market? Say SH(x) would cost a good $80 from now on, and that would allow you to spent 4-5 years working on any sequel so it really comes out polished, bug-free and with really new content -- that content and those improvements, that your customer ship was really asking for. This will not get you any casual gamer that just looks for a quick game on a Saturday afternoon, but I am quite confident it would have worked with the people in this community. Maybe that is something to think about? __________________ Scientific facts are not determined by the opinion of the majority, nor by a democratic vote.